Skill Of A Soldier
by Feagalad
Summary: "There's been a massive spike in Rift activity over the past fifteen minutes. Almost like it's trying to open again." That got Jack's attention and fully pulled his focus from Ianto's dimples and to the situation at hand. "Any sign of a blue police box from the 1960's?" He asked, half-hoping and half-dreading the answer... Spoilers up to "Dead Man Walking" and "Utopia"


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**Disclaimer: **_Oh gosh...this sort of got away from me. It started out as one thing and then morphed and mutated into a whole other blob of destructive protoplasm! Like a slightly more badass Abzorbaloff. Or Lady Gaga's public image. Or...well, you get the point. Also? I don't own it. Not a single thing. Nopity, nopity, nopity, nope._

* * *

"Whoa, this is a big one!"

Jack blinked and looked up from the page where he had been dreamily doodling pictures of Ianto just as another vibration shook the Hub. "What the hell?"

Noting with some annoyance that his Pooshien paper weight (one of the few artefacts he had left from his travelling days with The Doctor) had fallen to the floor and fractured, Jack got to his feet and stumbled over to the door of his office, ducking to avoid a file box that finally gave up the balancing act and tumbled from the top of his cabinet (he had been _meaning_ to get all of those things sorted).

There was another ominous rumble and the Hub shook again.

"Tosh? Ianto? What the hell is going on out there?"

"We don't know!" Gwen's distinctive Welsh accent called back from where the former police officer was braced against Tosh's computer while the tech girl typed away madly. "There's been a _massive_ spike in Rift activity over the past fifteen minutes. Almost like it's trying to open again."

_That_ got Jack's attention and fully pulled his focus from Ianto's dimples and to the situation at hand.

"Any sign of a blue police box from the 1960's?" He asked, half-hoping and half-dreading the answer. If The Doctor was in town that meant that all was (more or less) under control. A Time Lord could probably close Rifts without even breaking a sweat. But if he was in town, that usually meant that Jack was going to end up running desperately for his life within the next six hours or so. And he hadn't even had breakfast yet.

Gwen peered at a screen, ignoring Tosh's attempt to bat her away, and scanned the CCTV feeds. "Nope. No #1 Red Alerts that I can see."

_Mauve Alerts._ Jack's mind supplied as he momentarily went back to another time and another place (literally) lifetimes ago.

He shook himself. He couldn't afford to be nostalgic today. Not when the Rift was throwing a temper tantrum that threatened to tear the Hub apart.

* * *

"What the flying hell is going on around here?!" Owen, sunny and charming as ever, stumbled into the Hub swearing and rubbing his head. "The whole damn façade is going to hell up there. Cardiff is going nuts."

"Something's coming through the Rift." Tosh hunched over her computer, still typing madly while Gwen and Jack stood by for news and Ianto scurried about trying to save his coffee maker from the quakes.

"What the bloody hell is it?"

Jack shrugged. "We're no more in the know than you, Owen."

"Great. Just damn great." The doctor scowled a bit deeper than his default setting and stomped off to his med bay to take stock of the damage. "At this rate we're going to bring the bloody UNIT down on our arses for 'disrupting the balance of the planet' or some such rubbish."

They all ignored Owen's mutterings, well used to his surly ways by now, and gathered around Tosh's flickering screen to watch the blip emerge from the Rift...hoping desperately to identify it before they went out guns blazing.

"Do you recognise anything, Jack?" Gwen asked in an undertone.

He shook his head. "No. It's nothing I've ever seen before. Definitely alien, though."

"Well just flipping lovely." Owen discarded a ruined syringe and swore as he discovered a bent scalpel. "Just what we need today...a damn earthquake and a double-dammed alien invasion."

* * *

Cautiously, the Torchwood Three team approached the smoking hulk of twisted metal and broken glass that was the crashed ship. In one hand Tosh held a gun and in the other a BioScanner (salvaged from a long-since dismantled Racksha escape pod) that she was using to check the wreckage for life signs and potential patients or, more importantly, possible attackers.

"There's signs of one living being inside. Life signs are thready."

"Right." Jack said, cocking his gun. "Gwen - you take Tosh and Owen and go around the right side and see if you can get in before this thing self-destructs. Ianto and I will go left and do the same."

"Think you can stay out of each other's pants long enough?"

Jack glared at Owen. He wasn't against the odd lewd insinuation (encouraged them, in fact) but sometimes they were just totally inappropriate at the time that Torchwood's resident grouch and medical agent chose to express them.

Owen didn't have the good grace to look ashamed.

They scouted out and around the wreckage, looking at the bent frame and dented sides. It really was well and truly wrecked. Jack doubted if anything could have survived, no matter what Tosh's scans said. In all likelihood they would find a solitary survivor just in time for them to stand by and watch it die. All in a day's work at Torchwood. At least the dead ones (usually) didn't try to raze the city of Cardiff to the ground, however welcome that event might sound to the rest of the world.

"Oi! Jack, Ianto, over here!"

That was Gwen. And, from the sounds of things, there was quite the struggle going on. Jack and Ianto took off running.

They rounded the front of the wreckage just as Tosh took a rather impressive blow to the head and went down in a heap, leaving Gwen and Owen alone to grapple with the blond, humanoid alien that they had just pulled from the ship.

"Dammit, Jack!" Owen grunted, struggling against the arm that was trying to get him in a headlock. "Get over here and join the orgy already!"

With Jack and Ianto's help they managed to pin the young woman (if that's what it could be classed as) to the ground while Owen whipped out a vial of Multi-Species Sedative and plunged it into its hip.

_Nice, curvy hips._ Jack noticed absently as the alien gasped and went limp. "It down for the count, Owen?"

The doctor took its pulse and frowned. "Yeah. But I think it's having a reaction to the sedative...the heart's pumping overtime. We'd better get it back to my med bay before it metabolises it and starts wreaking hell again. Thing's built like a gymnast and trained in some sort of martial arts. I'm going to have a black eye!"

"Fine, then." Jack said. "You and Ianto take Tosh and our subject back to the Hub and see what you can make of it. Gwen and I'll do something with this." He indicated the still-smoking hull wearily. He really hoped that it wasn't going to explode or something messy like that. He'd had his fill of disaster for the day.

* * *

"GODDAMMIT!"

Well that was a welcoming sound to return to the Hub to - Owen swearing blue and green (though, granted, that wasn't out of the ordinary) and the sound of a scuffle in the med bay.

Their alien had awoken and, despite its appearance of a teenage girl, was putting up an impressive fight against Tosh and Ianto as Owen fought with its legs and attempted to sedate it again. He was sporting the beginnings of two beautiful black eyes.

"Jack! Come give us a hand." Tosh grunted as she took an elbow to the stomach.

At any other time Jack would have felt like a bit of a pervert as he pinned a slender blond girl to a table so Gwen could sit on her and Owen could drug her (even Captain Jack has moral limits), but as the alien snarled something in some foreign language and fought against both them and the drug, all Jack could care about was getting it knocked out so his battered team could go and lick their wounds. They certainly hadn't planned on fist-to-fist scuffles whenever they went out to salvage an alien wreck. There was always the chance of hostilities, of course, but somehow they hadn't been expecting one blond bombshell to give their entire team a run for their money. (In their defence, it was much stronger than anyone of this build had a right to be. Maybe it was an alien biological thing?)

"Oh thank God." Gwen said as the subject finally went limp. "What the hell was that?"

Owen scowled. "I don't know. I was just preparing my scanner when it suddenly woke up and went ballistic. Nearly dissected me with my own scalpel before Tosh pulled it off."

"Ianto helped too." Tosh said, rubbing her ribs.

Owen waved a dismissive hand in Ianto's general direction.

"Anyway...I've got it covered. You lot go eat, drink, fornicate, or whatever you do while I'm actually getting work done. Get out of my hair."

Gwen shot Jack an inquisitive look. "Yeah. You all can go." He said, rubbing his forehead and wondering if a bruise was forming. "I think we've got things under control."

"But Jack...what if it wakes up again?" Good old Gwen - always thinking ahead and outside the box!

There was a snort from Owen. "I'll be damned if it does." He said darkly, punching a few buttons on the 43 century scanner they had salvaged six months ago. "That was a triple-strength dose of sedative. It's a marvel the heart's beating fast as it is with that lot coursing through its veins. I don't need you all stomping about and getting in my way while I try to do my damn job. So get the hell out of here."

"Charming as ever, Owen." Gwen said, departing with Tosh to the upper levels where hopefully Ianto had some therapeutic caffeine going. Dealing with Owen _and_ a juiced-up alien made her long for a few stiff drinks. What had she ever seen in that foul-mouthed prick? Well; not that there had been much _seeing_ going on...

One by one the team went their separate ways. Tosh mumbled something about checking on her computer system at home after the earthquake and Gwen holed herself up in Jack's office, mercifully offering herself as a sacrifice to man the phone and deal with calls from UNIT and its associates that only became more annoying with every extra piece of red tape threatened and every passing hour of time wasted. Jack resolved to do something real nice for her whenever this was over and instructed Ianto to go and double check the cells. They needed somewhere to store their visitor after Owen was through with it and the Weevil from last month had left quite a mess on the cot, if he remembered correctly. He'd make that up to Ianto later.

"Gwen! Jack!" Owen yelled from the med bay.

Jack groaned. Would they never catch a break?

He dashed down the stairs (Momentarily wondering if sliding down the bannister would be faster...why _did_ Torchwood have such a bizarre, obstacle course layout anyway?) and assisted Owen with pinning their guest down and drugging it...again.

It was easier this time. Probably because Owen (grouchy, paranoid bastard that he was) had caught the twitching sign of awakening before he was in danger of a cut throat again.

Unfortunately, this time their subject jerked back awake before Jack even had a chance to sit down.

"DAMMIT!"

"Oh GOD."

"DAMN TO HELL!"

"OW!"

"F-"

"GODDAMMIT"

"It's not working, Jack." Owen panted, rummaging for another syringe with one hand. "It's metabolising too damn fast. You're going to have to pin it while I set up an IV."

Jack swore as a knee caught him dangerously close to the groin, and glared at Owen. "Damn it, man, I'm already kneeling on its legs. What d'you want me to do...go full-on topside on it?"

"That sounds dirtier than it should."

"Oh hell." Not that Jack had anything against some hot and steamy grappling with aliens (no siree, not at all), but it was usually under better circumstances than the cold, sterile light of a medical bay and a freaking-out new species of alien that may or may not live up to its young female appearance and was overcoming an overdose of Owen's special sedative brew with increasingly alarming ease. Maybe in another circumstance (like a bar in a galaxy far, far away) he would have tried to maybe convince someone like this into his bed...but right now this was just making him feel dirty. And of course Owen was making it more uncomfortable than it had to be. This was work, dammit! Did he have to make it sound like some sort of porno? How did he expect Jack to concentrate?!

Feeling unusually dirty, Jack finally succeeded in pinning the re-sedated alien to the table while Owen swore and insinuated and set up an IV line.

"Damn! Glad that's over." The surly doctor said, dusting off his hands. "Should be down for the count for good now. If not, I'll just up the dose. Again."

"I'll just stick around, then." Jack said, stretching his back and groaning. Unfortunately, being immortal didn't make you immune to bruising and pulled muscles.

Owen looked up from his scanner and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Just stay out of my way."

Sitting himself down with a file that he had been meaning to review for some time (in his defence the whole incident with Owen coming back from the dead and all the problems that had caused had sort of mucked up his paperwork schedule), Jack put up his feet and set about ignoring Owen's mutterings as he set about doing a scan on their latest alien invader.

"Blimey!" Owen let out an admiring whistle after a few minutes of scanning slowly up her body. "That's some biology she's got there."

"She?" Jack sat down his file and came to peer over the shoulder of the medic.

Owen, eyes glued to the monitor, nodded. "Yes – it is a juvenile female of an unknown species (the DNA has no match to any of our records) with a respiratory bypass system and two hearts."

That caught Jack's attention. "What?"

"You heard me. Two hearts – and a couple of other organs I'm not entirely sure what they're for. She's also a virgin who's never smoked and has superbly toned legs."

Jack paid that last comment little attention as his mind raced back to the time he had hacked into UNIT's files (Was it considered hacking if he used the password?) and read all of the files concerning what little information that is known on Time Lords – especially the little fact that they were known for a double pulse. Still, it wouldn't do to get his hopes up. There were several other species Jack could think of with two hearts and out of those at least three were somewhat humanoid (Apalapucheans, for instance). He couldn't help it, though; couldn't help wishing that this would turn out to be a friendly Time Lord…maybe even The Doctor after a particularly wonky regeneration (Oh the fun he could have with that!).

"Anything else of note, Owen?"

"Nah. She seems to be stabilised in a light sedative-induced coma. It's off to dreamland with this one...she won't be waking up any time soon."

"Well good." Jack stretched and cracked his fingers (ignoring Owen's wince). "What say we all go out for some supper?"

"You lot can go. I'm heading home to watch the cooking channel and cry over my undeadness." Owen's voice was morose and Jack remembered too late that, unlike himself, Owen being a dead man walking meant that food, drink, and sex were all off his list. How the guy was even still sane after fate restricted his top three favourite activities (aside from generally being a bastard to the rest of his team) was anyone's guest. Not that anyone at Torchwood could exactly be classed as _sane_, Jack admitted.

Maybe he could take Ianto and Gwen out for dinner...

* * *

_Cold. Hard. Bright._

She groaned as her eyes fluttered open and the fuzz began to clear from her brain. What happened? Where was she? _A soldier always scans surroundings._ She lifted up a hand to rub her eyes and winced as something jabbed her in the back of the hand.

As her eyesight cleared, she found herself staring up at a white, tiled ceiling. Almost like a..._laboratory_. She sat up with a jerk, looking around intently at her surroundings.

She was sitting on a hard table (_Dissection table?_) with a now empty IV attached to her hand and all sort of medical and scientific instruments (some she recognised and some she didn't) laid out around her. Working quickly, she ripped out the IV and slid off the table, making her way cautiously out of the lab and into a large, main space adorned with a water tower and..._a sleeping flying lizard?_

That was it. Time to find out who (or what) had captured her this time and whether or not their regime needed taken down. That was her job, after all, saving worlds and rescuing civilisations...with a whole lot of running involved, of course.

* * *

"You taking the night shift too?" Jack asked Gwen as they made to leave the Italian restaurant and she turned to head back towards the Hub.

"Rhys is visiting his sister." She said. "Might as well. Nothing to go home to but television and cold leftovers."

"Ianto?"

The resident coffee boy shook his head, a slight blush coming over his face. "I was up late last night and I'm pretty tired. Unlike you I actually need to sleep every once and a while. I'm going back to my flat."

Jack chuckled. "Fair enough. See you tomorrow then."

He and Gwen headed back to the Hub in comfortable silence. It was looking to (hopefully) be a quiet night and Jack was looking forward to relaxing with some paperwork and a chance to chat with a friend. Maybe Owen would even be there and they could pull him out of his funk (Jack swore he had come back even grouchier than he was alive) long enough to play a game of DOCTORWHO with the basketball. That is if Myfany hadn't chewed it to shreds again.

"Owen?" Gwen called as the lift landed and the sliding door opened. "You still here?"

When no reply came (either a snarled profanity or a one-fingered salute over the rail of the med bay) Jack went over to check on Owen. Just to, y'know, make sure he wasn't trying to drink his woes away again or anything like that. They did NOT need a repeat of the Linda Blair vomit routine. Especially with a slumbering specimen in...

_Oh shit!_

"Uh...Gwen?" Jack said softly, looking at the disconnected wires and discarded blanket. "I think we have a problem. Put the Hub on Lockdown 2 until further notice."

"Jack. You better come here."

Hurrying as quietly as he could (they _did_ have a possibly hostile alien loose somewhere in the Hub, after all), Jack went to where Gwen was crouched. "What's going on?" He breathed into her ear.

"Dammit, Jack, don't do that! Look at Tosh's computers. _How_ did we miss her when we came in?"

Sure enough, there sat their alien subject, typing away at speeds nearing supersonic and flicking through files faster than Jack thought should be humanly possible. But of course she wasn't human, he remembered, and felt a stab of annoyance and even concern when he caught a flash of the Torchwood Confidential emblem on one file. Toshiko wasn't the sort to forget about logging out. This stranger, attractive though she may be from the hind view, must have hacked the files. And alarmingly proficiently too, considering that not three hours before she was flat on her back with an IV of near-quadruple strength sedative flowing into her. Time to take some action.

Standing up (and, remembering the last couple of tangles, cocking his gun behind his back) Jack walked over to the computer console and cleared his throat. "And what, may I ask, do you think you're doing?"

To her credit, she neither jumped nor flinched, suggesting that perhaps she had known they were there all along. Slender fingers froze over the keys before snapping up to Esc. and closing all the files before she spun around with a manic grin that Jack felt was just a tiny bit familiar and a lot disconcerting. "Assimilating, of course." She said lightly, as if it was obvious.

Unfortunately, it was not. "Assimilating?" That didn't sound good. The last assimlator he had met was a plasmavore who had seen _Vampire Diaries_ one too many times.

She shrugged. "Yeah. Needed to see some of your language so I could learn it."

Uhhh. "And that required hacking into our secure files?"

He was favoured with another almost-pitying look. "Haven't you ever heard of multitasking?"

This was not the way Jack had anticipated the conversation going. He had expected threats in an alien language and possibly rough-housing...but not this. "So you were trying to learn our language?"

"A soldier always knows the language of the planet they land on."

Jack felt Gwen stiffen behind him. "You're a soldier?" She asked, reaching for her own gun.

"Well, yeah." The girl looked a bit annoyed now. "Not my fault...I was born this way."

At any other time, Jack would have found an alien from outer space referencing Lady Gaga (even unintentionally) extremely funny...he'd always said that she was out of this world, after all...but under the circumstances, all he did was draw his gun and make sure the girl could see it held in a firm but non-threatening manner. "What are you doing here?"

"Why don't you tell me. You're the one who kidnapped and tried to dissect me. Who are you anyway?"

"If you've read our files then you already know. How about you? Why don't you tell us who we are?"

The girl peered at them for a moment before shrugging and lounging back against the console - relaxed but alert. "Fine. My name is Jenny. Now can I get back to my ship, please? I'm sort of on a tight schedule."

"What schedule?"

"Oh you know - saving worlds, rescuing civilisations, and a whole lot of running. Love the running."

Jack exchanged a look with Gwen. _Awkward_. They had just blasted the remains of her ship that morning. _Double Awkward._ How the hell were they to tell this unexpected visitor who didn't appear to be threatening Earth in any manner (though the jury was still in discussion on that) that they had destroyed her transport, effectively stranding her? _AWKWARD!_

* * *

Jenny stared at them, eyes wide. "Gone?" She said, mouth hanging open just a bit. "My - my ship is _gone_?"

Feeling somewhat shamefaced, Jack nodded. "Yeah. Sorry about that. But you crashed whenever you came through the Rift and we had to destroy it before it potentially went nuclear and wiped out our entire town. Cardiff doesn't take kindly to being nuked, you know. Not since we got a new mayor."

"I - I don't understand." She pushed off from the computer console and swayed slightly, looking pale and off balance. "Uhh."

"Are you okay?" Gwen asked, seeing the girl reach up and rub at her temples again.

"I'm fine." Jenny's teeth were audibly gritted...something Jack realised had been building for the past twenty minutes. "I just...what is that?"

"What is what?"

"That...that humming! It's threatening to tear my eardrums apart...and I'd hate to have to grow new ones!"

Jack exchanged a wary look with Gwen. The last person in this hub to hear strange noises had turned out to be a Sleeper in disguise.

"Gah!" Jenny flinched as he stepped closer to her. "What...what are you? You just feel wrong!"

_Now didn't that sound familiar?!_ "Jenny?" Jack said, taking a step back and noting the way she relaxed slightly. "What is your species?"

"You're asking me that now?" She said, shooting him an incredulous look. "Oh my head!"

"What are you?"

She backed up into the water tower and jerked as if electrocuted, stumbling forward again with a muffled cry. "Wrong. The air is wrong. It felt wrong and now it's getting worse."

"Are you a Time Lord?"

Another flinch, though that could have been because she stumbled closer to him and felt the burn of his 'wrongness'. "No. I don't know." She gasped and visibly tried to reign herself in - to again put on that façade of relaxed cockiness that had been chiselled away. "I don't know what I am, no one ever told me. I just know that this place feels wrong and I want to get away."

"Sorry, sweets, no can do."

Upon seeing the look of utter devastation on Jenny's young-looking face, Jack could see Gwen melt like warm butter...though she still kept her gun at the ready. "But we may be able to help you, Jenny. Just calm down."

* * *

"Feeling better now?"

Jack watched from where Gwen had banished him to his office. The plucky Welsh agent had taken over Ianto's machines (he wouldn't want to be her when Ianto found out) to make Jenny a cup of coffee and had gone through Owen's med bay (he _really_ wouldn't want to be her) and got a blanket to drape around Jenny's shoulders. The two of them were now sitting on the old sofa - Jenny wrapped up and mumbling something under her breath and Gwen making sympathetic noises with her gun close at hand.

He watched Jenny's grey eyes dart all around the Hub, taking everything in. He wasn't entirely sure how happy he felt about having an alien loose in Torchwood...an alien that they knew little about, no less, and one that had apparently sensed his 'timey-wimey wrongness', as The Doctor put it. But that same Doctor, Jack's dear friend/mentor/comrade-in-arms/whatever-the-hell-else-you-could-label-The-Doctor-as, that taught him to ask questions first and shoot afterwards. _Speak softly and carry a big stick_, so to say.

* * *

Jack never did get an answer from Jenny about her species and finally he concluded that she honestly didn't know. The rest of the team wasn't best pleased to return in the morning and find their subject asleep on the sofa. Owen in particular went off in a rather impressive rant of pure profanity and grumbled that he wasn't going to play nursemaid to E.T. while they were all on missions. Jack responded and gave Ianto a pinch and said that he was sure the coffee boy could handle her for a few hours.

"Oh..." Jenny said, still seated on the couch, eyes darting between Ianto and Jack and mouth making the shape of an 'o'. She blushed a deep red and turned away, fiddling with the blanket.

Jack grinned.

* * *

Jenny was an odd soul (almost alien, if Jack was the sort to make lame puns and expect others to laugh) and seemed perfectly content to spend most of her time puttering about the Hub and basically dismantling any piece of technology that she got her hands on. It was like dealing with a toddler. A super-smart, super-strong, super-skilled toddler. She was into everything and once gravely informed them that the alien bomb they thought they needed to diffuse was simply some sort of four-dimensional Rubik's Cube and promptly solved it within an hour flat.

Other than babbling on about technologies and occasionally spouting off the odd _"A soldier must...this or that."_ that sounded like she was reciting programming, she didn't really speak much. And she avoided Jack like the plague...the only place she hated more than being in close proximity to him was the centre of the Hub where their make-shift Rift-controller was set up. Something about that made her sick, she said, though in the rest of the Hub she could ignore the dizzying buzz of it a bit.

Days shifted into months and the team more or less got used to having a blond alien hanging about their headquarters. It got to the point that Jack began to consider taking her out on missions. She was, after all, clearly trained for combat and could perhaps interact with alien life a bit better than your average human could. The big question was - could they trust her.

When Jack expressed these opinions to Ianto one night, the younger man snorted and asked if Jenny was really an appropriate topic for pillow talk.

"You know what I mean." Jack replied, lightly swatting his partner. "We really could use another team member ever since...since Suzy died. Do you think we can trust Jenny? Out on a mission, with a gun?"

Ianto tipped his head to one side. "Well, if you want my opinion." He said quietly. "If she _honestly_ wished to do us harm - in any way - she could have already done it. We know she can hack into any of our systems whenever she pleases and we know that she's broken into the archives and alphabetised them a couple of times, so if she really wanted to bring Torchwood down or hurt it in any way she is more than capable of it. Hell...I doubt we could really hold her inside if we wanted to. Look what happened the last time we tried to drug her!"

"I just don't want to get anyone else on my team killed trusting the wrong person again."

He felt Ianto's warm arm as the other man slid it around him. "You won't, Jack. I trust you. Take her on a simple Weevil hunt or something that you can all watch her back on. I'll even come along if it'll make you feel better."

"Hmmm. What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"I don't know, sir."

* * *

"So you've got your standard semi-automatic and your..."

"Thank you, Jack. I know how to work a gun." Jenny snatched up the firearm and the ammunition before backing away from him. "Where are we going again?"

"The sewers. We're on a Weevil hunt." Owen leaned against the railing.

"Suit up, doctor." Jack said, looking for his waterproof boots.

"I'm not coming." Owen said.

"What?"

"Well someone has to stick around here and warm up the anaesthetic for your return."

"Always the optimist, aren't you?" Gwen came by, dressed in her own sewage-ready gear. "All set to go?"

"Yes."

Weevil hunting was disgusting. Either they had gone through a breeding season (an idea disgusting in and of itself) and started to overflow into the streets or they were threatening to back up the drains again and chow down on hapless sewage workers who came down to fix it. Both problems usually ended in a fire-fight and in Jack being splattered with Weevil guts and sewer water...and he still wasn't entirely sure which was the nastier. All he knew was that it meant he had to leave his coat at home. And that wasn't good for his public image.

Gwen Cooper stayed close behind Jenny as they climbed down into the smelly bowels of the city and started shuffling along, trying hard not to splash or trip. Jack had pulled her aside before they left and instructed her to '_stay close...because she won't sense you the same way she does me'_. Fair enough...

They needn't have worried though, for no sooner were they half a mile into this underworld maze than disaster struck. Well...disaster and two more-feral-than-usual-Weevils who seemed determined to sink their teeth into anyone or anything that got close enough.

"That's a Weevil?" Jenny said, gun trained straight and steady on the snarling creatures. "I thought weevils were bugs."

"And?" Jack asked tersely, dodging a splash from them. "They breed like 'em. No difference whatsoever...LOOK OUT!" Tired of the stand-off, the ugly things charged and send the torches flying. _Oh God_...now it was smelly and wet and dark and no-one had any idea who was who. Jack blindly punched and kicked and almost bit (before he remembered who and where he was fighting), hoping that it was Weevil arse he was kicking and not one of his colleagues. "IANTO...WHERE'S THE LIGHT?!"

"I - I don't know. It won't come on!"

_Dammit!_

It was all a blur of fists and knees and teeth for a moment before Ianto finally worked his magic and got one of the torches working again, showing a Weevil about to jump Gwen who was helping Tosh grapple with one of the beasts. Jack opened his mouth to scream out a warning when someone else dashed by in a blur and leaped between Gwen and the approaching mauling.

"Oh my God…JENNY!" Jack yelled as the girl slipped and fell on the wet stones, the Weevil on top of her.

Ianto opened fire.

* * *

"Owen…I hope you have that medical bay shiny and well-stocked." Jack said into his Bluetooth as he drove pell-mell through the streets of Cardiff, hoping to high heavens that any and all old-grannies were safely inside tonight. Because he wasn't going to stop for anyone.

"Oh for – what the hell's happened now?"

"We've got one alien, of undetermined species, shot in the leg and stabbed through the gut with a pipe." Ianto flinched at the mention of the bullet and Jack heard Owen hiss on the other end of the phone.

"What the hell happened?"

"Weevils. God do I hate them! Jenny came off the worst for it, though, and she's not doing well."

"Well I should think not, what with having an effing pipe rammed through her stomach. Did you pull it out?"

"No, Owen, I'm not a complete idiot. I don't want her bleeding to death in the back of our car."

"Please tell me you weren't in the sewers when this happened?"

"…Yes?"

"GODDAMMIT! Go and make my job harder, why don't you? You know that I have a hard enough time fending off infection as it is. But we don't even know what drugs she can take. And I'll NOT be responsible for killing her with bloody medicine!"

Jack glanced at Gwen in the rearview mirror where she was keeping pressure on the wound and talking softly to Jenny…who was remarkably stoic about the whole thing. "Nothing with an aspirin base, Owen. That could potentially kill her."

"Great. Lovely. Now shut up and drive."

* * *

"Gwen?"

"Shhh, Jenny. Don't try to talk. We'll get you fixed up."

"No, Gwen, listen. I'm done for."

"Don't say that!" Gwen said, trying hard to smile. How old was this alien? A teenager? Twenty? Too young to be dying from a damn Weevil, that's for sure. "You're not going to die."

Jenny chuckled roughly. "You think I don't know what it feels like?" She said, grimacing a bit as Gwen's grip tightened. "Listen…I've gotta do this whole 'final words' bit quickly because I don't have much time left and…_God_ it hurts!"

"You're calm about this."

"A soldier faces death with dignity." Jenny said, shrugging and then stifling a cry as blood spurted from her wound. "Listen to me, Gwen. Don't let them freeze me. When I'm gone. Don't let Jack put me in that freezer."

"Jenny. Hush. Save your strength for dealing with Owen's bedside manner."

"No. You h-hush. Don't let them f-freeze me. Wait six and a half hours….a-always wait six and a half hours…" Her voice trailed off and she shut her eyes with a gasp of pain.

"Jack? Hurry!"

* * *

"Well? Where is my patient." Owen asked impatiently, scalpels and disinfectant at the ready. A vindictive bastard and a bit of a pervert Owen might be, but he certainly could do his job and do it well. And woe to the one who got between him and someone needing medical help.

With that in mind, it was with great reluctance that Jack cleared his throat and said. "It's too late, Owen. We lost her."

Behind him Ianto slunk off to the coffee machines. He'd have to make it clear to the poor guy later that Jenny's dying _hadn't_ been his fault. Ianto had saved her from being drowned in that sewer. She wouldn't have died from a bullet to the leg and it was too dark to shoot straight. How was he to know that the Weevil had impaled her on a broken pipe?

Owen stared at Jack. "She's dead? She died on your watch?"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you sound a bit heartbroken."

"Pfft. As if! I'm just mad that you got one of my patients killed. Are you sure she's dead?"

"Owen! I think I of all people would know how a person feels when they're dead. She's gone, deceased, soon to be pushing up daisies in our freezer."

"Actually, Jack." Gwen said quietly. "Jenny said something to me about that. She said for us not to freeze her for six and a half hours after she died."

"And what the effing hell is that supposed to mean?"

Gwen glared at Owen, eyes suspiciously bright. "I don't know. It could be some sort of religious thing she picked up somewhere…but the least we can do is honour it."

The doctor glared back for a moment before sighing. "Oh for God's sake…fine. We'll lay her out on our table and let her soul depart to Heaven or wherever it is hot alien girls go when they die. That suit you?"

"Come on, Owen." Jack said, forestalling the high-emotion-fuelled fight that was sure to follow. "Let's go get Jenny."

* * *

"It's been six hours and twenty-five minutes and zip. I think we should just freeze her."

"_Owen!_"

"What? She's dead. And dead people don't come back…usually." He said, seeing the pointed looks everyone was giving him.

"We're honouring her last wishes. Then you can autopsy and catalogue and freeze to your heart's content." Jack said, trying to play peacemaker.

"EEE!" Tosh screamed. "Jack? OWEN!"

Well after the night they'd all had, everyone jumped to their feet and raced over. "Toshiko, what is it?" Owen demanded.

"Just take a look at your 'corpse'."

"Oh my GOD!"

Jack could only stare as the lifeless body of Jenny inhaled deeply and breathed out a cloud of glowing, golden mist as every scratch and injury on her body faded and healed. What the hell?

With a sudden gasp that reminded him of his own resurrections, Jenny sat up and looked around her wildly. "Oh…you lot."

"Jenny?" Gwen said, voice a bit quavery (understandably, after the rollercoaster they had all gone through), "What was that?"

"Uh…cosmetic's?"

* * *

Another three months went by since Jenny's death and subsequent resurrection (_Healing? Regeneration? Miracle?_). They never did get an explanation from her on that, though it did get her the nickname 'Phoenix' from Owen…probably the nicest nickname he had ever given anyone. Life was quiet, aside from the occasional Weevil assault, and Jack began to wonder if maybe Jenny was Torchwood's good-luck charm.

But all things come to an end sooner or later.

"Jack – c'mere." Gwen frowned and squinted at the CCTV feed, pizza in one hand and gun-cleaning rag in the other. "That blue box, that funny blue box you're always going on about…the #1 Red Alert – "

"What about it?" Jack's voice was terse around the wrench clamped in his teeth.

"It's on the plaza."

That seemed to get the immortal's attention for there was a bang and a string of muffled curses from under the table before Jack emerged, rubbing his head. "It must be The Doctor." He stumbled and swore again as someone ran by him in a blur, shoving him back against the table again.

"Jenny?" Gwen leaped to her feet in confusion. "Jenny, where are you going?"

The girl didn't answer, but ran for the doorway full tilt and all but shoved the heavy vault door open by hand as she slipped through the opening and tore up the stairs.

Glancing at each other, the team followed her as she ran full-tilt through the 'tourist centre' and out onto the plaza, just like Jack himself had raced so long ago before The Year That Never Was.

The door to the TARDIS opened and a man poked his head out. Seeing the crowd of Torchwooders approaching, he stuck out his tongue and went back inside…slamming the door with a definite bang.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Jenny gasped, skidding to a stop. "Wait…_Dad_!"

Wait…WHAT?!

Jack blinked and had to recalibrate his brain after that. Jenny was…but…but…but it all made some kind of sense. The technobabble, the babbling in general, the regenerative abilities, the fondness for running of all things…it all fit. The only thing that didn't add up was her fondness for guns. And even then he was pretty sure that a few regenerations back The Doctor hadn't been so against them. Oh GOD!

He was distracted when The Doctor opened up the door and half-fell out, gaping. "Jenny?!" He gasped, looking (Jack noted with concern) like he was about to faint.

Jenny let out a sort of sob (the sort of sound no one had heard her make before…not even while dying) and propelled herself forward into The Doctor's waiting arms. "Daddy." She sobbed, clinging tightly to his jacket.

"Oh my God…Jenny!" The Doctor looked close to tears himself as he pulled her back to get a good look. "But…but…what…I thought you were dead!"

"I know." She sniffed. "But I'm not."

"Oh my God." And she was crushed into another hug."

Jack let them have a discreet moment before he had to satisfy his rabid curiosity. "Uh…what's up, doc?"

"Stay away from him!" In one moment Jenny had gone from little lost lamb to snarling mama bear as she put herself between Torchwood and The Doctor. "You'll have to kill me to get to him."

"Uh…what the hell?"

"You heard me. And you all know how hard I am to kill."

"Jenny, Jenny." Jack watched as The Doctor gently put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey…Jenny. It's okay. Trust me, Jack is an...old friend."

Jenny frowned. "But…but I saw. In the files. Torchwood's No. 1 Enemy."

"Haha!" Jack laughed, making her jump. "As if I've ever played by the rules!"

"That much is true." Owen muttered.

"So you're not going to try to kill him?" Jenny looked suddenly young and vulnerable again.

Jack smiled. "Don't think I could even if I wanted to, kid." He said. "Besides, me and The Doc? We go way back."

"Jack." The Doctor looked pained. "How many times have I asked you not to call me that?"

"Too many to count?"

"And do you listen?"

"Not a chance."

"You never do and…_WAIT A SECOND_!"

Jack suddenly flinched and felt about an inch high as The Oncoming Storm made an unscheduled appearance. "Uh, Doctor?"

"Jack Harkness…what have you been doing with my daughter?"

_Oh shit._ "N-nothing." Dammit. Only The Doctor could make him stutter like a little schoolboy again. "I swear it, we haven't done anything."

The Oncoming Father peered closely at him for a moment before he relaxed and Jack thought it was safe to come out from behind Owen again. "Fine then." He glanced at the rest of Torchwood and grimaced. "Well…must dash. Just stopped to fuel the Old Girl up before I head off to Victorian London." He glanced at Jenny. "Do you still want to come travelling with me?"

The girl was practically jumping up and down in place. "Oh yes…yes PLEASE!"

"Then say goodbye to your friends." He said, waving a hand at Jack's team. "I'll be inside. Don't take too long. You've got a TARDIS to learn how to drive."

Owen would forever swear after that that Jenny actually squealed in delight and jumped up to clap her hands. But Jack wouldn't know because, as he stepped back inside, The Doctor caught his eye and mouthed 'Thank you' with a smile. Thank you for sticking by me that awful year. Thank you for not hating me for running from you. Thank you for everything. And thank you for bringing my daughter back to me.

And somehow Jack felt that he could face down just about anything if he could hold that memory of father and daughter embracing with shining, thankful eyes. Family. A long-lost memory that teased at the corners of his mind.

He glanced at Ianto. And at Gwen and the others. Well…maybe not so lost after all.

Jenny grinned shyly at him and, standing on tiptoes, actually brushed her lips against his cheek. "Goodbye, Jack. Thank you for everything, everyone."

"Hey…what's family for, right?"

* * *

**Good? Bad? Thoughts?**


End file.
